In the spirit of an election year, the campus community is being asked to vote for their favorite of five posters designed to promote a positive campus climate.

The posters, with the theme "Curiosity drives us, Learning brings us here, Community sustains us. The University of Arizona. A great place to be," are on display behind the Memorial Student Union Information Desk.

Jennifer Aviles, administrative associate in human resources, said the posters will be on display for at least the next two weeks. She said no permanent deadline has been set.

Artists were selected by members of the UA Campus Climate Team, which includes Aviles; Murray DeArmond, director of Campus Health and Wellness Services; Maria Teresa Velez, associate dean of the Graduate College; Jose Ayala, Residence Life custodial services supervisor; Dot Larson, graphics and photo manager for Printing and Publishing Support Services; and Sharon Kha, assistant to the UA president.

Jane Bretschger, UA graphic design supervisor for Printing and Publishing Support Services, was one of the five artists selected to submit a design.

With about 14 years of fine arts and commercial art experience, Bretschger said she was honored to be selected to participate.

"The community and campus climate is important to all of us," she said. "We all should be excited by our surroundings."

Bretschger, a UA employee for about a year, said she chose a "folksy" theme for her design.

"It is kind of simple," she said. "The buildings around Tucson are kind of like that."

The other artists are Jackson Boelts, UA art professor ; Guy Porfirio, an artist who is the son of UA Information Desk operator Pat Porfirio; and Amber W. Design, a community artist who has designed art for the Arizona Theatre Company and who submitted two designs.

Kristie Gallardo, senior office specialist in the Office of Decision and Planning Support, said though she did not feel strongly about any of the posters, she thought it was a good idea to let people vote on them.

Aviles said the posters would allow for discussion about what campus climate means to people.

The posters were the idea of Provost Paul Sypherd, who was out of town and unavailable for comment.

Martha Gilliland, UA academic vice president for information and human resources, said the poster campaign would provide a symbol to the campus community.

"We sometimes underestimate the power of symbols to impact our thinking and our behavior," Gilliland said via electronic mail. "The poster will be a powerful symbol of what we want our campus to look and feel like for students, employees and visitors. While each of us will interpret the look and feel of the symbol differently, we will all move in its direction."

Another supporter of the posters, Lynne Tronsdal, assistant vice provost for undergraduate education in Arts and Sciences, said "I want to know what students feel about the posters," she said. "Which poster are they choosing and why?"

Tronsdal said the point of the posters is to visualize something which is not visual - how people feel about the campus.

Once the final poster is selected, an initial lot of 1,000 posters will be printed with 500 distributed on campus. The rest will be to be sold in the bookstore.

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